231208ApprovedMinutesPerformanceCttee

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Minutes of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey In per­son 8 Decem­ber 2023 at 1.30pm

Present Kenny Deans (Con­vener) John Kirk Chris Beat­tie Ann Ross Steve Mickle­wright Sandy Brem­ner Elean­or Mackintosh

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Apo­lo­gies None

Wel­come and introduction

1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Committee.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh noted for trans­par­ency a con­nec­tion to item 7 as she is the Board rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Cairngorms Trust Board.
2. Chris Beat­tie noted for trans­par­ency a con­nec­tion to item 8 as he is the Board rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group.

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Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 9 June 2023 held in per­son, were approved.

2. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: i. i. a) 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 Para 19ii) — Report relat­ing to Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing to be brought to the Com­mit­tee. In Hand b) 9 June 2023 Para 16i) The Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change to feed­back to the fest­iv­al steer­ing group mem­bers com­ments on tim­ing. Completed

Vice Chair Nomination

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices, intro­duced the item, invit­ing nom­in­a­tions for Vice Chair of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee to come for­ward from the com­mit­tee members.

2. The Chair nom­in­ated Steve Mickle­wright as Vice Chair; Chris Beat­tie seconded the nom­in­a­tion. There were no oth­er nom­in­a­tions and Steve Mickle­wright was con­firmed as Vice Chair.

Cairngorms 2030: Q4 2023 (Paper 1)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030, intro­duced the paper which presents an update on Q4 2023 on the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme and the planned devel­op­ment work to end March 2024.

The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A mem­ber asked with pres­sure on budgets how are we work­ing with oth­er pub­lic part­ners to make sure they can still deliv­er the pro­jects with us. b) Head of Cairngorms 2030 con­firmed that we are work­ing with part­ners to identi­fy their pri­or­it­ies. We are look­ing at match fund­ing and loc­al author­it­ies already have their fund­ing in place for the first year, but we have iden­ti­fied altern­at­ive ideas if this becomes an issue, and we will con­tin­ue to mon­it­or the match fund­ing pos­i­tion closely. c) In the present­a­tion that was giv­en to Nation­al Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund, we recog­nised there is a risk to the pro­gramme over 5 years in terms of securing

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match fund­ing and we are look­ing at the whole pack­age. We noted that if there are losses in some planned match fund­ing con­tri­bu­tions, we will try and gen­er­ate match fund­ing from oth­er sources. The Pro­gramme has had suc­cess in attract­ing new part­ners and match fund­ing as activ­it­ies pro­gress and there is reas­on to believe this will con­tin­ue into the deliv­ery phase. d) A mem­ber asked what the impact would be on staff and how that would be man­aged. Head of Cairngorms 2030 con­firmed that we have star­ted some of the recruit­ment intern­ally and then we will look at where we are in terms of budget in Janu­ary and if staff move across look at the posts to see if we want to keep that role or look at altern­at­ives. The Seni­or Man­age­ment Team are also devel­op­ing wider oper­a­tion­al plans along­side C2030 pro­ject pro­pos­als to provide an integ­rated approach to change management.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Cairngorms Trust and Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Update (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Cameon, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced an update on the work of the Cairngorms Loc­al Action Group Trust and the col­lect­ive work of the Cairngorms Trust and the Park Author­ity in Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment activity.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A mem­ber con­firmed that it is clear this area is oper­at­ing effect­ively through fund­ing from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to deliv­ery pro­jects led by the Cairngorms Trust. b) It was noted that we have been able to sup­port aspects of the Trust in terms of staff and activ­it­ies. Part of the for­ward plan is look­ing at vol­un­tary giv­ing and mak­ing the Trust more self-suf­fi­cient. c) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that we con­tin­ue seek­ing extern­al fund­ing to have enough char­it­able fund­ing for the Trust to run itself and cov­er its own costs. Any dona­tions that are cur­rently made the trust­ees can right­fully claim will be spent 100% on pro­jects as oth­er costs are covered from elsewhere.

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d) Mem­bers agreed that there are good mile­stones set out in the draft busi­ness plan.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Ann Ross left the meet­ing at 2.00pm

Beaver Update (Paper 3)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change, presen­ted the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing Back Beavers Project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that things have moved on since the paper has been pub­lished, as the licence applic­a­tion has now been accep­ted and approved. b) There has been a lot of engage­ment in the last 6 – 9 months but there are still some people feel­ing they were not engaged with. As a res­ult, there was a farm­er group that formed, and this will provide a good comu­nic­a­tion route going for­ward for early engage­ment.. c) The Park Author­ity per­haps relied to heav­ily on Nation­al Farm­ers’ Uni­on Scot­land (NFUS) to inform farm­ers and officers recog­nise that is one for them to have a think about mov­ing for­ward. d) The farm­ers for­um will have their first meet­ing on 15 Janu­ary, that will look at a lot of issues. Beaver will be the key issue at the first meet­ing. e) The Park Author­ity will estab­lish a Beaver work­ing group focus­ing on mit­ig­a­tion, adapt­a­tion and this will be land man­age­ment driv­en. f) The Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change and his team were con­grat­u­lated by a mem­ber to get the licence approved with an exem­plary applic­a­tion. g) A mem­ber noted that there are a lot of les­sons to be learnt, not every farm­er sits on NFUS as the geo­graph­ic spread is too wide., In future we need more input from farm­ers, to build a com­munity of trust and to look forward.

Steve Mickle­wright left the meet­ing at 2.09pm.

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h) A mem­ber asked if Beaver Bleth­ers was an appro­pri­ate name for some­thing that had such a big impact and stand­ing in the con­sulta­tion pro­cess. i) Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the Beaver Bleth­ers were a suc­cess and there were also oth­er engage­ments such as dir­ect com­mu­nic­a­tions, site vis­its and meet­ings with land man­agers and stake­hold­er groups. j) A mem­ber sug­ges­ted a leaf­let through the door would have been more bene­fi­cial as people would have seen the inform­a­tion. k) Chief Exec­ut­ive Offers con­firmed that the drop-in ses­sions were well atten­ded and that the cairn magazine to every house­hold did con­tain inform­a­tion on the beaver con­sulta­tion and drop-ins but agreed that in future we would be look at a door drop halfway through a con­sulta­tion. l) Mem­bers had a full dis­cus­sion on les­sons learned around con­sulta­tion and engagement.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

AOCB

1. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that Man­age­ment Team will think about items to dis­cuss in the next year, and we will be back in touch with a draft schedule.

The meet­ing closed at 2.19pm